the art of balance - work, mom, life.
Let me set the scene ... this post has taken days to write. That's just my new reality. And when I finally finished it (late last night), I was too tired to publish ... then my son was up screaming a lot of the night (he's been sleeping through the night but we're on vacation, so I think a new environment messed it up a little), so that delayed it again. My life is not glitzy or glamorous - it is now a crazy, beautiful mess and I wouldn't have it any other way (though I would love him to sleep!!!). Okay, now to the good stuff ...
People ask me -- how do you do it? Run a 6+ figure business from home while raising a baby? The answer ... it's about balance and priorities and it didn't happen overnight (I've had my business for 3.5 years, so a lot of passive income streams were already in place while I was pregnant). Having a baby really makes your priorities crystal clear. Gone are the days where I could sit on the couch and watch Netflix for hours while working on my computer. So long two-hour afternoons naps and sleeping until 10am. But enter the most beautiful creation - a child that I grew with my own body. Hello to baby giggles and smiles and snuggles. To seeing life through new eyes where socks are magical puppets and water bottles are pure entertainment.
Change can be scary. It takes time to adjust. Parker is now 6.5 months old and I am still trying to figure it out. My wife, Jordana, also runs her own business and works from home, so I am really lucky to have the extra help there. But I am breastfeeding, so my physical body is required for him every 3 - 4 hours. If I'm in the middle of watching a webinar or knee-deep in a new blog post, and it's food time, I gotta go. It's not all about me anymore ... between breastfeeding, feeding him, pumping, trying to get him to nap and attempting to work - it's actually rarely about me! I'm sitting here writing this post while P naps and I'll probably get cut off and have to finish during the next nap (he's on a streak where he only wants to sleep for 40 minutes at a time).
So during these 40 minute naps, I have to be focused. I can't just play around on Facebook and Instagram (or shop online, which is my favorite activity). I need to sit down in front of the screen and type away. When I'm on a roll, the words can just fly out of me - and when I get interrupted because Parker wakes up from a nap, I can get really frustrated. And then I feel super guilty because he needs me and I'm the one who brought him into this world ... I'll save a whole other post on mom guilt - it's so real.
Yes, Jordana & I take turns watching him so that the other person can get things done -- we even tried doing three hour stints where she would watch him from 7 - 10, then I would do 10 - 1 and so on. This way, we would have 3 hours of uninterrupted time (except for me because #breastfeeding) to do whatever we wanted / needed to do. It seemed to work well for the few days we implemented it, so we'll see how it goes. And God bless my parents who live close by and come over to help as well.
[as predicted, this post has been interrupted by a 35 minute nap ... silly boy]
Business doesn't look like what it does before - and that may temporarily result in less revenue - and that's okay - but it also may not! That's the beauty of entrepreneurship - there are money-making opportunities all around us. I just have to take a bit of a different approach now that I'm a mama since my time is much more limited.
So it's a new dance - this balance of work, mom + life. One with a pretty adorable new dance partner :)
Here are a few things that are working for me:
6 Tips for Balancing Work + Mamahood
Set up passive income streams so you can make money without even doing anything (digital products + courses, PDF's, trainings, e-books, physical products, affiliate links) - it's a beautiful thing when you wake up in the morning and see you made money overnight.
Ask for + hire help - this can be hard for some people but it truly takes a village to raise a child. Ask someone to come watch your babe for an hour (or 4!) so you can sit down and bust out some content. Hire a VA (virtual assistant) to take care of client communications, setting up sales pages, techy stuff - whatever it is that you don't enjoy doing and / or are easy to delegate so you can focus on the bigger items. While it may seem counterintuitive to hire someone if / when you're not making a lot of money yet, you will actually be able to make more money because you'll be able to focus your time + attention on getting clients, creating content + focusing on your current clients.
Limit your to-do list for your business to 1 - 2 things per day -- as I mentioned above, it's all about priorities. Look, running + growing a business keeps you busy for sure - to-do lists become endless. When we look at lists with 25 items on it, we get overwhelmed and can often be less productive because of the stress we feel when thinking about all the things that have to get done. But when we have only 1 - 2 things to complete, it definitely feels way easier to accomplish and then when we do, we feel awesome about ourselves.
Close out all of your tabs on your browser so you won't get distracted (I'm so guilty of not doing this and every time I see a little (1) on my FB tab, I have to go see what my notification is! I just can't help myself!).
For writing blog posts / newsletters, come up with a bunch of topics and bullet points for each so that when you're not feeling super inspired, you can look back at your list that already has an outline and bust out the post!
Take care of yourself (something I'm still working on - my wife teaches this, so you'd think I'd be better!). When you take care of you, you are better able to take care of those around you. Whether it's a salt bath, mani / pedi, massage, meditation, workout, shopping or even just sipping a hot cup of tea outside, taking that time for you - even just 10 minutes - can really recharge you and shift your mindset + energies.
I hope this helps + resonates with you and I'll keep you posted on new things that I implement that help in my life + biz.
love + sparkles,
Gena